Baby bouncers are a class of popular products for parents and their infants. Basically a baby bouncer is a device that holds an infant and provides them with gentle motion in a manner that can stimulate an infant when they are active, soothe them when they are not, enable an infant to exercise, all while enhancing free time for parents. Baby bouncers are typically used by infants between the ages of 4 months and 1 year, that weigh less than about 26 pounds, that are less than about 32 inches tall, and that can sit up by themselves.
In general, a baby bouncer has a seat that cradles an infant and that is retained in a flexible manner on a stand. The seat and stand are beneficially dimensioned so that when the baby bouncer is located on a surface that an infant can jump, kick, and partially stand in a manner that allows the infant to exercise, entertain itself, and to burn off excess energy to enable the infant to sleep. When the infant moves the flexible seat gently bounces the infant in accord with the infant's movement. A baby bouncer may include any number of additional features such as rattles, bells, toy bars, and visual stimulators such as lights and mirrors to soothe and/or stimulate the baby.
While baby bouncers have been highly successful, that success has itself created a problem. Baby bouncers are so popular and useful that both parents and babies want them readily available, even when traveling. However, prior art baby bouncers are typically not very portable. Thus, when parents and babies travel this has made it relatively difficult to bring a baby bouncer along, particularly with all of the other products a parent usually carries, such as diapers, baby wipes, powders, changes of cloths, etc. While there are some prior art baby bouncers that are relatively transportable, they are particularly not easy to use, small in size and/or lightweight.
Because of their popularity and because of the desirability to bring them along when traveling, a lightweight baby bouncer that folds into a compact space is highly desirable.